Chapter 1143: Red On The White Canvas

Standing not too far from her, wreathed in bright yellow flames flickering with blue and the occasional green tinge, Kary spun on herself, both to look at the aftermath and to confirm to the girl that she was fine.

The forest of green and brown was gone, leaving place to a painting of whites and blues; the trees, ground, leaves and even the stream completely frozen over solid.

The next to show signs of life was Alexander, screaming with pride.

"Woo! Damn, it’s cold, hehe! Holy shit, Violette. That was some crazy amount of mana," he whooped, looking around him like a proud older brother.

Next game David’s echoing tongue click, as he pushed a statue of ice in front of him to the ground, shattering it into a million pieces.

"Well, at least we don’t have to worry about these schmucks anymore," he shrugged.

That was also the moment the reality of her actions caught up to Violette.

A violent gag forced her to her knees, and it wasn’t long before she vomited what little content her stomach still had, as her skin went pale, and her eyes wide.

"I... I killed people..." she gasped between two fits of puking.

"Hey hey hey!" Kary said, jumping toward her to reassure her. "You didn’t kill them, you saved us. Don’t think for a second these men wouldn’t have done the same thing to all of us, given the chance."

Kary extinguished the flames around her as she bent down to grab Violette by her shoulders and hug her.

"These men meant us harm, and you protected your friends, nothing more, nothing less. You didn’t kill them."

Violette knew she was trying to reframe the narrative positively, to help her cope, but the knowledge of it only made matters worse.

She quickly burst into tears, her knees buckling under her own weight.

Kary didn’t let her fall, holding her in her embrace as she gently got down to her knees, holding the limp Violette in her arms.

"Shhh. It’s alright. Everyone is safe thanks to you. Don’t think about the negative. Only the positive."

But it didn’t seem her words reached the girl, as she kept sobbing in her arms.

She was tempted to let the girl cry to her heart’s content, but her mana senses quickly picked up something coming at them fast.

Kary’s eyes hardened, her head snapping toward the sky, the moon and stars illuminating the celestial vault above them, her eyes trying to track the mana signature.

Alex and David picked it up seconds later, but only moments before it crashed into the ground outside the frozen grove, throwing ice chunks in every direction.

The hypnotized members of their group snapped out of their daze at the loud boom of the impact, their eyes blinking groggily as they reconnected with reality.

Amidst the dust of ice and dirt, footsteps began resounding.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Alex could tell by the amount of mana the man had that he was not an awakened either. There was too much.

’Another old monster coming out of hiding,’ he thought with worry, slowly sliding sideways to get in between this unknown figure and his allies.

And he wasn’t the only one; David had already melted into his shadow and re-positioned in between this new threat and their group.

Even if he loathed the idea of acting like a protector, he could tell this new threat was nothing that most of them could fight, let alone beat.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Slow clapping echoed throughout the frozen grove before the figure finally emerged from the dust cloud it had created.

A tall, well-built man with shoulder-length wavy hair, entirely pitch black except for a single strand of silvery white framing the left side of his face.

His pale skin, almost alabaster white, reflected the moonlight like a porcelain doll, making him look eerie against the darkness of the night. To make matters worse, his eyes glowed an iridescent shade of blood red, confirming what everyone present could tell by his magical aura.

This was not human.

"It’s been a long time since I thought I needed to step in and take matters over from my subordinates. Almost a hundred years. This wave of change on Earth is almost a blessing in disguise, if I might say so myself," the man said, his voice making the air tremble ever so slightly.

His voice caused a tug at everyone’s mind, as if his words were something to listen to with their entire being. But their minds were more resilient than basic humans, and they could tell something was trying to affect them.

Reflexively, the telepath under Kujaku’s orders shielded everyone’s mind with a spell.

As he did, his body suddenly started feeling hot, his chest in particular.

He looked down to investigate, and all he saw was a hand coming out of his chest, a heart still beating in its palm, as blood slowly trickled down his lips.

"What the—

But he couldn’t finish that statement, as blood pooled in his throat, and he coughed a small puddle before dropping to the ground, dead with a look of astonishment.

Alex and David both snapped toward the man, their eyes widening as they had failed to see him move before it was too late.

Kujaku looked at her agent collapse, her heart skipping a beat before it erupted with rage.

"You savage!" she screamed before lunging forward.

Two daggers almost appeared in her hands as she whipped her arms outward, forcing them out of hidden sheaths on her forearms.

The man, still holding the warm heart in his hand, grinned at her with a pearly white smile.

And his two protruding canines became evident.

But before she could reach him, he blurred out of her sight, reappearing directly in front of her, hand extended in a stabbing motion, his nails suddenly a few inches long, aimed at her throat.

The ding of steel came after the movement stopped, two blades, one straight and one curved, blocking the attack as both Alex and David had burst into action.

Now that they knew their enemy was fast, they had sharpened their senses with mana and boosted their speed with different forms of magic: one with wind under his feet, the other with shadow leaking from his legs.

"Oh?" the man simply said, his head tilting to the side a little. "It would seem the bugs can fight back. Good. It’s been a while since I had to hunt my food. Entertain me, maggots!" he growled, his grin turning beastly, wings bursting out of his back.

"Everyone scatter! Now!"